h she was resolved to acquire in that land.
This event greatly deranged the Kaiser's schemes. He had hoped to keep
the Triple Alliance intact, and yet add to it the immense potential
fighting force of Turkey and the Moslem World. Now, however he might
"hedge," he could hardly avoid offending either Rome or Constantinople;
and even if he succeeded, his friends would exhaust each other and be
useless for the near future. Consequently, the Italo-Turkish War (with
its sequel, the Balkan War of 1912) dealt him a severe blow. The Triple
Alliance was at once strained nearly to breaking-point by Austria
forbidding Italy to undertake naval operations in the Adriatic (probably
also in the Aegean). Equally serious was the hostility of Moslems to
Europeans in general which compromised the Kaiser's schemes for
utilising Islam. Accordingly, for the present, his policy assumed a more
peaceful guise.

Here, doubtless, are the decisive reasons for the Franco-German accord
of November 4, 1911, whereby the Berlin Government recognised a French
protectorate over Morocco and agreed not to interfere in the
Franco-Spanish negotiation still pending. France opened certain "closed"
ports (among them Agadir), and guaranteed equality of trading rights to
all nations. She also ceded to Germany about 100,000 square miles of
fertile land in the north-west of her Congo territory, which afforded
access to the rivers Congo and Ubangi. The explosion of Teutonic wrath
produced by these far from unfavourable conditions revealed the
magnitude of the designs that prompted the _coup_ of Agadir. The
Colonial Minister at once resigned; and scornful laughter greeted the
Chancellor when he announced to the Reichstag that the _Berlin_ would be
withdrawn from that port, the protection of German subjects being no
longer necessary. He added that Germany would neither fight for Southern
Morocco nor dissipate her strength in distant expeditions. In fact, he
would "avoid any war which was not required by German honour." Far
different was the tone of the Conservative leader, Herr Heydebrand, who
declared Mr. Lloyd George's "challenge" to be one which the German
people would not tolerate; England had sought to involve them in a war
with France, but they now saw "where the real enemy was to be found."
The Crown Prince, who was present, loudly applauded these Anglophobe
outbursts. The German Press showed no less bitterness. Besides
criticising the Chancellor's blustering be